Drowning in Flowers
by CDCTheRandomWizard23
Summary: As Valentine's Day is coming, Austin & Ally struggle to tell each other how they truly feel. Is Trish's plan to make Austin jealous gonna work? Are The Love Whisperer's wacky ideas going to succeed in bringing Austin & Ally together? ...or will it just make things worse? A mess of flowers, mixed up secret admirers, and Ally's crazy birthday all create a holiday they won't forget.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey there! Happy Valentine's Day! :) If you check, all my holiday stories are very, very random. So, I guess that's gonna be true for this one too. :P It gets a bit fluffy towards the end of this chapter which is something I'm not entirely used to writing, so I hope it turns out alright, lol. There's a bunch of stuff that I could've just taken out, but I just decided to leave it like it was. This was originally gonna be a one-shot, but it turned out to be longer than I expected. Now it's gonna be a really short multi-chapter story. In this story, it takes place a little bit after the "Girlfriends & Girl Friends" episode. Also, for this story, just pretend that Kira doesn't exist. Okay, please review! :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the references to A&A, SWAC, WOWP, JONAS, TSL, P&F, or SIU. This story happens to be full of them, so watch out. :P**

* * *

**Austin's POV:**

I casually strolled into the music store on a Saturday morning hoping to see Ally. Why else would I go there, anyway? She was my best friend in the entire world after all, and she always brightened up my day. Things would never be the same without seeing Ally each morning at Sonic Boom, greeting customers with her bubbly personality that was always ready to spread her cheerfulness. As she saw me coming, her face lit up, showing the familiar smile that I'd grown accustomed to.

"Hey there, Austin!" she chirped in her cheerful little voice, as she left the counter and skipped over to me.

"Hey, Ally-gator!" I grinned as I took one of my hands out of my pockets and waved. Ally let out a few quirky giggles at the nickname. We gave each other a little hug like always. In the back of my mind, I wished that the hug lasted a little bit longer. It was a strange thought; I hadn't really thought of that before.

"Aww, as much as I like it when you call me that, I feel bad 'cause I don't know what to nickname you," she said after our hug ended.

"Nah, you don't have to nickname me," I chuckled, shaking my head.

"Uhh, yeah I _do_! Best friends have to give each other nicknames! I've read it in one of my friendship books before," Ally pointed out.

"You have a friendship manual?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Well, who _doesn't_ have one?" she answered back nervously, shrugging as she ruffled her hair.

"Um, I don't..?" I dragged.

Ally gasped. "Ooh, I've got it!" she shouted, smiling at me. "Okay, _wait for it_…" She held up an index finger and paused for several seconds while looking up at the ceiling. I started to get confused. "…its Awesome Austin!" she exclaimed joyfully and clapped her hands once, waiting for my reaction.

"What?" I asked, befuddled by her sudden exclamation.

"It's my new nickname for you! Try saying it ten times fast. I bet you can't! Awesome Austin, Awesome Austin, Awesome Austim, Awsim Auston, Awstum Austwim!" she prattled. I tried to contain my chuckles at Ally's wackiness, but I couldn't resist. We were both laughing our heads off in the next minute until we were out of breath. A few customers in the store stared at us as if we were complete lunatics and then eventually left. After a while, the giggles died down as we sighed and wiped our eyes. Ally was the first one to stop the giggling fit.

"Aww, we scared some customers away…" she trailed softly, watching the door. Then, she broke into a small smile. "But, I don't really care about that," she finished as we both stood grinning in the aftermath of all our laughing.

"Ally, you're crazy," I smiled.

"That's a compliment, right?" she asked me, turning slightly serious for a moment. She cocked her head to one side looking a bit dazed.

"Uh, yeah, of course," I assured her.

"Okay, great," Ally sighed while smiling up at me, looking a bit relieved. I didn't realize how unsure of herself Ally could be sometimes. "Oh, hey, um, Austin, do you wanna have lunch together today during my lunch break?" she asked sweetly. "You see, you and I never get to spend much time together. You know, with just the two of us. It's always us with Trish and Dez working on a project for your music career. I just want to have it different for once." She looked up at me with an almost pleading smile as her fingers drifted up to play with her soft brown hair. How could I _not_ turn her down?

"That sounds great," I replied right away. Ally let out an excited little squeal and rushed off to finish up her tasks at the back of the music store in order to be ready for her lunch break. I chuckled to myself at Ally's eagerness. Anyone who worked that hard at her job deserved a lunch break with a best friend. I guess that meant that I'll never eat lunch with Trish anytime soon…

* * *

In less than an hour, Ally's shift was over when she bounded up to the drum set I was playing off to the side of the store.

"Come on, it's time to go!" she sang out. She snatched my hand and rushed for the door as my drumsticks clattered to the ground. I almost knocked over the cymbals since she took me by surprise. I put on some shades as we entered the noontime sunlight which was beating down on the city like an unrelenting hammer.

The first thing we did was to stop by and get our lunch at the food court. Then, we were carrying our trays and making our way over to the tables to find a seat. We ended up sitting at the usual spot next to the cell phone accessory cart. I glanced over at the cart and felt an ounce of relief when I didn't see Dallas anywhere in sight. I didn't really like it when that guy was around because he'd always watch Ally and me, and then I'd observe that Ally was acting a bit strange at that moment. By that, I meant stranger than usual. Trish had told me about some weird encounters that Ally had with him which ended up with lawnmowers and marching bands. Overall, I thought it was best if Ally stayed away from that guy. Just far, _far_ away…

"Hey Austin, what're you thinking about?" Ally questioned as she poured some creamy dressing on her bowl of salad. I turned my head back around to face her.

"Eh, it's nothing," I waved off.

"Okay," mumbled Ally softly. "So what did you decide to order?" she asked as she started to eat her food.

"Don't you know me well enough to know what I'd wanna eat?" I teased playfully as Ally put on a thinking face and gazed up at the clouds in the sky, pretending that she didn't have a clue.

Her simple expression combined with the sunlight overhead made her look pretty. She took a guess. "Hmmm, would it be, oh I don't know, pancakes?"

"…shaped like hearts apparently," I finished. As Ally had been talking, I was opening the Styrofoam take out container that I got my lunch in. Now I was staring at the strawberry-covered, heart-shape looking pancakes in front of me with a bit of confusion. Ally peered over at my food.

"Aww, that's absolutely adorable," she said, taking another mouthful of salad.

"But I didn't order heart-shaped pancakes. I can't eat these girly pancakes!" I said, stabbing my food repeatedly with my fork to mess them up.

"Oh, Austin," Ally just giggled, watching me mixing my pancakes around.

"What? It's all gonna taste the same anyway," I said, starting to stuff forkfuls of pancakes into my mouth.

"Don't you completely _love_ Valentine's Day? Wherever you look, there're hearts everywhere! Hearts, hearts, hearts…" Ally sighed in a daydream type of voice.

"I guess Valentine's Day's just alright," I shrugged. "But it's too bad that we don't get any break from school," I commented. "The only good holidays are the ones when we don't have to go to school. I can't understand why you'd love Valentine's Day so much."

Ally put her fork down. "Uh, Austin, you _do_ remember that Valentine's Day is my –"

"Hey guys! Guess who went exactly nineteen days without losing her job?" said a voice coming towards us. I glanced up from my lunch and spotted Trish in her uniform for Daisy's Bouquets including a huge sunflower headband sitting on her head. Sometimes I wondered if Trish's bosses gave her such wacky uniforms just to make fun of her.

"Oh wow, Trish! That's a new record!" complimented Ally.

"I know, right?" answered Trish as she beamed.

"Remember back when you first had a job at Cupcake City? Ah, those were the best days of your life…Well, the best twenty-three minutes of your life," Ally pondered.

"Yeah, I miss that job. Apparently, you get fired if you completely over-frost the cupcakes and throw them at the customers to make the service go faster," said Trish. I chuckled lightly.

"At least you haven't been fired from the flower shop yet," I said with some optimism.

"It actually wouldn't be a surprise if I get fired today. You see, I accidentally arrived late to the flower shop. There must be something wrong with my watch. Oh yeah, Ally, you set it forty-five minutes ahead yesterday afternoon in order to make sure I wouldn't be late anymore, so then I made Dez fix it back to normal, look." Trish held out her wrist as Ally glanced at her watch.

"Ooh…now it looks to me that your watch is forty-five minutes _behind_," said Ally.

"Huh. I guess that explains it. That'll be the last time I go to Dez for help with math," mumbled Trish.

"Oh-kay…" I started, feeling uncomfortable that Trish interrupted our Austin and Ally time. "Can we go back to our lunch now?" I asked Ally, motioning back to the table in front of us. It was supposed to be just Ally and me until Trish came by. "Uh…I mean, Trish, don't you have somewhere to go to right about now?" I asked as I felt my voice go somewhat higher, sounding a bit squeaky. Ugh, I hated when that happened to me. I cleared my throat, looking towards Trish who was standing by our table. Through the corner of my eye, I noticed a brief, secret exchange of facial expressions between the two girls. Ally's face looked unreadable like usual, but it seemed like she was telling Trish to leave. Trish, on the other hand, looked partly confused for a moment and then smiled knowingly at Ally. Did girls have some sort of telepathy going on?

Trish finally broke the instance of silent communication. "Hey guys, I'm gonna have to go. I need to make sure that the shop hasn't burned down since I left it like two hours ago," she turned away, sauntering in the direction of Daisy's Bouquets leaving Ally and me to continue our date.

…Did I just think _date_? It wasn't a date, but a part of me felt like I wanted it to be one. _Why don't you just tell her how you really feel? She'll understand._ My mind was working silently, assuring myself. I watched as Ally had her head looking down at her salad; she seemed to be deep in thought as well. If I never decided to take a shot at telling her, then I'd never get the chance to change our relationship.

"Ally?" I gulped. She lifted her head to look at me. "I've got something on my mind."

"Is something wrong?" she questioned me, her brown eyes looking concerned.

"No, nothing's wrong," I assured her, shaking my head.

"Then what did you want to tell me?" she asked quietly, almost begging me to continue.

"I need to talk to you, about _us_…" I trailed, looking at Ally.

"Us?" she questioned in a quiet voice, seeming to get a bit nervous. "W-what do you mean _us_? Do you mean us as friends, as partners, as musicians, as classmates, as neighbors, as…?"

"Ally," I said to interrupt her nervous rambling. I thought about how to answer her question. "I mean _us_, as in, we need to change something about our friendship."

"Why? Isn't our friendship fine, just the way it is? We've been best friends forever, and you said that nothing was ever gonna change that," Ally pointed out.

"I guess I was wrong," I admitted. "I don't want to ruin our friendship, but I'm hoping that I could maybe change it for the better." I stared deeply into Ally's warm brown eyes. She looked a bit lost, a bit confused, but I decided to continue.

I took a deep sigh. "There's something I want to tell you," I began. "Actually, forget that, there's something I _need_ to tell you, Ally."

"I feel like there's something I need to tell you too," nodded Ally as a small smile started to form on her lips. I began to get even more nervous that I started to shake and my hands became sweaty.

"Y-you do?" I wondered.

Ally gave another nod. "Uh, why don't you go first?" she grinned nervously.

"I want _you_ to tell me first," I choked out, thinking how un-cool I just sounded. Suddenly Ally's expression changed.

"Oh, just forget it," sighed Ally, looking away. My heart sank, hearing those words.

"But what were you about to say?" I asked, longing to hear her answer.

"I-I don't think I'm ready," mumbled Ally with the same lost expression showing through her eyes.

"Well, I'm still gonna tell you what I feel," I stated, despite it all. Then, Ally pushed her chair away from the table and got up to leave.

"I'm sorry, Austin," she whispered as she turned away and ran towards the music store without facing me.

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**AN: Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think. Please review! :)**

**- Cynthia **


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews! By the way, the last chapter took place on a Saturday, and it wasn't Valentine's Day yet. I just needed it to take place on a day without them having to go to school. I know that this story's a bit late since the holiday's been over, but oh well. Kudos to the reviewer who guessed about what would happen and got it right! :P Please review!**

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**Ally's POV:**

I fled from Austin as quickly as I could without turning back, heading towards Sonic Boom. _This was really not my day…but then again, I didn't have many good days anyway. _It was dizzying to have a murky cloud of thoughts bouncing around in my head.

On my way there, I think I faintly heard Dez say hi to me as I rushed past him, keeping my gaze at the ground in front of me. Oh, I probably should have answered with a 'hello' back, but I was too busy with my mission to get back to the comfort of the place I knew best, my dad's music store. My feet kept striding onward until I at last saw my dreary reflection in the clear, glass doors. As soon as I charged through the entrance, I headed straight for the upstairs practice room and shut the door. My boots paced restlessly around the room, thumping on the wood floor below me. I took my phone out from my pocket and patiently waited while the throbbing pulses of the dial tone seemed to endlessly vibrate through my ears, mixing with the anxious heartbeats in my chest.

"Hey, Ally!" came Trish's answer to my phone call.

"Trish, I need you to get to the practice room right away," I said urgently, relieved that Trish had picked up her phone.

"Ooh…I'm actually in the middle of work right now. You want me to just ditch my job so that I could talk to you?" Trish questioned, hesitatingly. "…'cause I'll totally do that! Of course I'd –"

It was then that I heard a few knocks on the practice room door.

"Oh, hold on, Trish, there's someone at my door," I said, walking the few steps over to the door while still holding the phone to my ear. As I twisted the knob and pulled it open, I was surprised at who was standing in front of me. "Trish? You're pretty quick."

"I would've gotten here faster if I didn't have to push through a mob of angry customers crowding around the counter I'd been working at," shrugged Trish.

"Okay, well, I've got to tell you what happened after you left me and Austin alone during lunch," I said as we walked over to sit on some chairs towards the middle of the room. Trish had made sure to close the door.

"Did you do what I told you to do?" asked Trish hopefully.

"Well…" I began as Trish stared at me, raising her eyebrows. "No. I tried to tell him that I've been secretly crushing on him since the first week we'd met each other, but I…I panicked!"

"Aww, you just couldn't do it, could you?" Trish sighed, shaking her head at me in disappointment. "I've already told you to tell him dozens of times, but you always seem to let the chances go. You're gonna have to tell him eventually, just like I'm gonna get fired eventually if I keep up all my laziness, which is bound to happen," she stated plainly. "So what happened? I wanna know." She was leaning forward, eager to hear what I was going to talk about. I looked up at her and took a deep breath, ready to unload all the things that had happened to my curious friend.

"Okay, so he said that he wanted to talk to me about 'us,' and he wanted to 'change' our friendship," I said using my fingers to make quotation marks in the air. "And then I was like, 'but our friendship's fine!' and then he was like 'but I want to make it better!' Then, he said that he _absolutely_ needed to tell me something and so in my mind I was like 'oh, now's my chance for me to tell him!' …Then, it gets weird. So then I said, 'I want to tell you something too' and then we were like, 'you go first' and '_no, you go first_' And then, I felt like it wasn't too late to back out of the whole situation so then I was just like, 'oh, forget it!' After that, I ran away and now here we are."

"Whoa, Ally, wait. I didn't ask you to speak faster than the speed of light," Trish teased with a small smile.

"Sorry, it's just that I start to talk fast when I'm nervous. I've done it many, many times before. Why do I do that? Have you ever wondered why? It's one of those unsolved mysteries that I've never ever figured out yet 'cause –"

"Ally! Calm down, I've got work I need to get back to after this," Trish stated. Then, she tilted her head. "…huh, on second thought, what's the hurry?"

"I'm just not ready Trish," I sighed. "And, I never will be. I thought I was, but then, oh, I don't know… " My shoulders drooped sorrowfully as I stared at the floor with my eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "It seemed like he was going to tell me that he liked me too, but I ran away before I could find out. I'm such a _loser_."

"No, you're not," affirmed Trish with genuine earnestness in her features.

"Ughh, then why can't I say what I feel?" I asked, aggravated that I didn't know how to tell him any of the thoughts that I've been hiding from him for so long. Sure we always had a unique understanding of how each other felt at times, but I don't think Austin ever tried to search that deeply into my mind. Lately, I knew that I'd been acting a bit more strangely around him. I was trying not to make it that obvious, but I could tell that even Dez was able to notice that I was being different when I was near Austin.

"There's probably something inside that's holding you back," Trish observed.

"_Whaaat?_ No, there's not!" I said, noticing that the tone in my voice probably made it hard for Trish to believe that what I was saying was true. Her statement made me pause. What was holding me back? I thought about all the things that I dreaded the most. Rejection…humiliation…all my insecurities that made me afraid to step out of my shell and try something new…

"Ally, I've been your friend since preschool and I can tell when you're lying," said Trish softly.

"You're right, I do have a few things in the way," I sighed.

"Well, you're just gonna have to learn to get rid of them," Trish said. "Just remember that I'm here for you anytime you need help."

"Aww, thanks, Trish!" I replied, grateful for my friend as we gave each other a small hug.

"…just not at 3 a.m. I can't believe you called my phone so early that one time!" Trish exclaimed, breaking our hug.

"But it was an emergency! After all, you still decided to help me anyway," I said. "Although, we ended up getting stuck in a freezer full of ice cream, going to the police station, and then you got fired from the ice cream shop…"

"Eh, what are best friends for?" Trish shrugged. Though Trish wasn't the best employee to be trusted in the world, at least one thing was certain. I could always trust her as my best friend to lean on for support through my struggles.

"And, another thing," I began. "I think Austin's forgotten my birthday." I frowned, remembering his obliviousness. Actually, if I remember correctly, Trish had come over to our table and interrupted me as I was going to remind him about it.

"I'm sure he hasn't forgotten," Trish said, shaking her head. "By the way, when is that again?"

"It's on Valentine's Day, and it's coming up in a few days," I replied. "Come on, Trish! You forgot too?"

"Sorry, it might've slipped my memory," she apologized. I guess I just had to wait and see if Austin would remember my birthday when it was time to.

"So, tell me what to do about Austin," I said.

"Hmm, what to do…" Trish pondered for a minute, trying to think.

"Well, according to my friendship manual, it says that '_Proper communication will lead to a balance of trust, reliance, and…'_" I started, flipping rapidly through the ruffled pages.

"Oh, just forget the manual!" exclaimed Trish. To my surprise, she snatched the book from me in a fit of spontaneous craziness and hurled it across the room where it slapped the wall, making all the pages shiver as the book dropped dead to the ground. I stared after it for a moment. Aww, I wished Trish was gentler with my stuff…

"What we need is a plan to create a romantic moment to get you guys to tell each other how you feel!" Trish's lips turned up into a small grin. "Hmm, but I wonder what…" Now I knew that she was up to something, though I really couldn't guess what it was. Trish's "plans" always resulted in an unorganized disaster that always ended up with _me_ having to clean it up regardless of who did what.

I suddenly came up with an idea. "Ooh! How about if each week, I drop very subtle hints about Austin, _then_ in four to five months…"

"Are you out of your mind, woman?! By then, Austin'll find somebody else to cuddle with!" exclaimed Trish. Whoa, Trish was starting to scare me a little…

"How 'bout if I take Austin to watch a romantic movie with me, like _The Timid Heart, _or something?" I suggested.

"Nah, you'd have to take Dez alongside with you on your date. I'm pretty sure having him around is going to mess it all up somehow," Trish said. "And besides, Austin isn't into romantic movies. He's not some sensitive guy who cries during sad movies and sunsets. Again, that would be Dez. Austin loves the Zalien movies, but I hear that _Zaliens 14_ isn't coming out until June."

"Bummer," I mumbled. "And why are you shooting down all my ideas?"

"Because, I could tell just by hearing them that they'll end up in a disaster just like the time when you decided to stand up to Austin for stealing your song and ended up breaking down the walls on the set of the Helen Show," Trish replied.

"Wait, people are still talking about that?" I asked as the embarrassment came flowing back to my memory.

"Of course they are! You destroying the Helen Show set is still the number one video just above Trent destroying the Wanda Watson show's. I was gonna get some revenge on him, but it all played out by itself!" Trish laughed. Ugh, it wasn't comforting at all to know that lots of people everywhere in the world still replayed the most embarrassing moment in my life.

"How wonderful..," I choked out. "And by wonderful, I mean totally making me want to throw up."

"Sorry, I can't help it. You know how I love watching funny videos online," said Trish.

"Anyways…We both know that Austin likes to have fun, so maybe we can think about what he likes to do for fun," I thought.

"Just because Austin likes to have fun doesn't mean _we_ can't have fun with him as well," Trish grinned, gesturing to herself and to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's pretty obvious that he likes you, Ally. And it's obvious that you like him back. We need to make him jealous!" Trish said, smiling. Then her face lit up in realization. "I've got the perfect plan to make Austin jealous!" she shouted. "It'll be some pretty sweet revenge."

"Revenge?" I questioned. I had to make sure I'd heard her right. "No one's gonna get hurt, right?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. No one's going to get hurt…well, maybe," Trish paused. "Quit being such a drag, Ally. Liven up a bit!" Ugh, I hated it when people told me stuff like that. Wasn't it okay to be concerned for a guy that I cared more about than anyone else? I didn't know if I should trust her. It would be terrible if Austin got hurt inside; it would be my fault.

"Trish, are you sure you know what you're doing?" I asked skeptically.

"Yup! Okay, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna pretend to be your own secret admirer by writing yourself cards, sending yourself flowers, doing just about anything to make Austin notice and then get jealous! Then, we'll see how he reacts and we'll find out if he actually likes you more than as a friend!" Trish beamed, proud of her plan.

"Wait, why do we need to make him jealous?" I asked, confused.

"Because that's the first thing I came up with, duh," answered Trish. "And so, let's go along with it!"

"Okay…" I mumbled, unsure of how this would end up.

"Now come on!" Trish said, pushing me to the door. "We need to hit the flower shop, the greeting cards shop, and the chocolates shop before they close for the evening! Go, go, go!"

* * *

**Austin's POV:**

Ally steadily rushed farther and farther away as my heart sadly watched, but I didn't make any effort to go chase her. My chance to tell her that I actually liked her more than as just friends was thrown off a cliff. But wait…how would she have reacted if I _did_ tell her? What if I was going to ruin our entire friendship by telling her instead of changing it for the better? The way things turned out might have even _saved_ our friendship. Hmm, but I still wanted to tell her how I felt no matter what. No matter how much it could completely ruin our current relationship with each other, I had the urge to tell her with a fiery passion. I wanted the whole world to know that I, Austin Monica Moon, liked Ally Dawson, my beautiful songwriter! Okay, so maybe I was being a bit dramatic, but it was true.

"What's up, my fellow compadre? Happy…uh…" Dez scratched his head for a second. "…February something! I don't know what day it is today. Is there something we need to remember about February?"

I got back to reality after zoning out and saw Dez walking up and taking a seat across from me where Ally had been sitting before she left.

"Ooh, salad! Mind if I –" Dez just started to dig into the salad that Ally had barely touched before I could say anything.

"Hey Dez, that was Ally's," I said to him.

"Oh, Ally? I think I just passed her. She was hurrying to the music shop. And she didn't even say hi to me," Dez frowned for a second.

"She left 'cause she's upset," I said.

"Aww, Austin, _what did you do_?" Dez asked accusingly.

"Why'd you assume it was me?" I questioned. Dez just laughed.

"Oh, I don't know. Usually when something wrong happens, Ally blames you. It's just like how Trish always blames me when something goes wrong," he answered. "So what's going on? Is Ally okay? Does she know that I broke another one of the keyboards at her dad's store and hid it?"

"What? You broke a keyboard? You're gonna have to pay for it, dude," I said. Dez groaned and slumped his shoulders. "But I sure hope she's okay," I stated, feeling bad since I might have hurt Ally's feelings somehow. I'm not even sure why she ran off in the first place. "Dez, if I tell you something, you've got to promise me that you won't tell _anyone_," I said, staring straight at his eyes to make sure he agreed. "Are you with me?"

"Of course! It'll stay safe with me," he nodded.

"Okay, well, I like Ally," I said, looking for Dez's reaction. To my surprise he laughed. What was so funny?

"Last time I checked, we lived in Florida," he said as if it was the most obvious thing.

"What are you talking about? Dez, you're not making any sense," I told him.

"You just said that you like Cali," he stated. I dropped my face into my hands.

"No! I said I like Ally!" I said, a bit annoyed.

"Alright, you don't need to shout," Dez muttered, rubbing his ears.

"Sorry. So I was about to tell her that I liked her, but then she left," I sighed.

"Do you know if she likes you back?" Dez asked. I paused to think about whether she did or not.

"No, I don't know. But there's a chance that she might," I wondered.

"Well, what if she doesn't? You'd better not mess this up, man. Who knows what could happen if she doesn't feel the same way? You would totally embarrass yourself!" Dez replied.

"Wow, thanks for being so supportive," I said sarcastically.

"Oh, no problem, buddy," Dez grinned. "If you need anything anytime, just ask."

"Hey, I think I'm gonna need some help with this whole situation. Do you think you could give me a hand?" I asked, hoping that he would say yes. Dez broke into a huge smile.

"I know what I'm gonna do today!" Dez announced to himself. "I'm on a mission to use my genius brain to think up a plan to get my only two best friends to admit their love for each other! Ah, but maybe I'm not _worthy _to do such a task…"

"You've never been in love before, have you?" I questioned Dez.

"Nope! Not at all. But, I _have_ watched countless hours of romance movies, so I think we both know that _I _know what I'm doing here," Dez crossed his arms and nodded, feeling proud of himself. He grinned. "I promise to help you, buddy. And, I'm gonna make sure it happens," he said sincerely.

"You'd better be right," I said.

"Aren't I always right? They don't call me '_The Love Whisperer_' for nothing," Dez shrugged.

"I'm still pretty sure that no one else calls you that besides yourself," I said.

"Still, it's not for nothing," Dez said. "I'll prove it to you. You know that I never break a promise. You'll see. Soon, you two will get to live the love that you only dared to dream about."

"I hope you're right," I sighed.

* * *

The next morning, I suddenly jolted awake as the sound of an air horn ripped right through the silent atmosphere. Right away, I sat up in bed, breathing heavily and whipping my head around to find the source of the disturbing sound. It only took two seconds for my eyes to focus on the figure standing several feet away from me.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" shouted Dez, grinning at me. I drowsily rubbed my eyes as they looked at the air horn grasped in his hand and at the digital clock on the dresser beside my bed.

"Dude! Dez, why are you in my bedroom waking me up at 6:00 a.m.? I never get up this early! And...How did you get in here?" I spluttered, struggling to get myself to wake up.

"Because, waking you up at 6:00_ p.m. _would be weird! And, I got in here through your open window just like I've been doing lots of times when you didn't know! Awesome, right?" exclaimed Dez.

"Wait, you come in here without asking me sometimes?" I hesitated.

"Only when I need to borrow some pants from your closet," replied Dez. What? Dez has been taking stuff from me?

"Okay...and you can just keep them," I said, a bit weirded out.

"Cool. Oh, and I don't actually have any eggs or bacon. But here, have a donut from the shop Trish is working at today!" Dez offered, tossing me a paper bag. I caught the bag before it hit me in the face and pulled out a glazed donut.

"Sweet!" I took a huge bite out of it, savoring its sugary goodness. As I was chewing, my eyes examined it.

"Uh, Dez? Why are the sprinkles moving?" I asked.

"Oh, those aren't sprinkles. Trish gave me a couple of rejected donuts. All you gotta do is brush the ants right off before you take a bite," Dez nodded.

"Ughh," I shivered, chucking it out my open window and wiping my fingers on my shirt. "Dez! That's disgusting."

"At least they were free," he shrugged.

"Wait, why is Trish up and working at a job at six in the morning? It's not like her to do that," I thought aloud.

"When I stopped by, Trish mentioned something about needing to work early since she's gonna be busy in the afternoon," Dez mentioned. Trish? Busy? I wonder what she's up to. "I'm gonna go downstairs and cook up some actual breakfast for us to eat, Austin. While I'm gone, you should get ready for the start of my plan to get you and Ally together." Dez started to make his way over to the door.

"No, wait!" I called over to him.

"What?" he asked, turning his head to look at me.

"Don't touch the stove. Don't touch the oven. In fact, don't even touch the microwave!" I told him, knowing that Dez would create a mess the second he tried to cook anything.

"Relax. You're even starting to _sound_ like Ally," he said, a bit irritated. I smiled and rolled my eyes at his comment. Dez continued to leave and shut the door behind himself, muttering along the way. "Man! You almost set the house on fire just _one time_, and it's like no one can trust you in the kitchen anymore…"

I chuckled at Dez's murmuring and started to get ready for the day. Hopefully, Dez knew what he was planning to do.

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**AN: Thanks for reading! What's gonna happen next? What's Dez gonna do? Tell me your thoughts by reviewing! :) **

**- Cynthia**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Sorry for taking a while to update! I've been busy working on other things, so I apologize. Here's a short chapter for now. Thank you to all the reviewers from the last chapter! :)**

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**Ally's POV:**

I smiled politely as I handed customers their paper bags bursting with sticky, cream-filled donuts. "Thanks for choosing this shop as your favorite donut destination! Have a nice day!" I greeted, as they walked out of the quaint, little shop. Outwardly, I seemed overjoyed with working bright and early in the morning, but on the inside I was a bit gloomy. I can't believe Trish made me fill in for her job this early. She stayed for a couple minutes at the shop only to run out of the door. This was probably the fifteenth time this month that she decided to leave her job and force me to take her place without asking me first if it was fine with my schedule. Of course I decided to do the work for her; it's not like I had any choice anyways.

The donut shop smelled like the aroma of freshly baked dough combined with the scent of chocolate. I love chocolate. I could eat chocolate everyday, and seeing all these donuts next to me was really tempting. The strong smell of coffee also flooded the room, almost overcoming the pleasant smell of fresh donuts. I presently stared at the empty tables and chairs scattered throughout the floor of the shop, wishing that it wasn't so _lonely_ here. It seemed like this place barely got any customers at all. But then again, it was only about six in the morning, so most people wouldn't even be awake at this time. Why was _I_ even awake at this time? I wish I had someone to hang out with while I stood here with nothing to do. Dez came in earlier, but then he left right as Trish left so now I was utterly alone with nobody to talk to. I think I can see why Trish always wanted to leave her jobs. They turned out to be the most boring times of our lives.

Just then, an idea came to me. Hey, why don't I write one of those secret admirer letters to myself right now? I reached for my book that was lying on the counter next to the cash register. I made sure to take it wherever I went in order to prevent anyone from looking inside of it or even stealing it. I didn't want a repeat of what happened that one time when Dez and Austin opened my book and read all that embarrassing stuff about me liking Dallas. Where's Dallas been nowadays? I barely even see him. Oh well, I don't think I really like him anymore. I'm pretty sure he didn't even like me back, so what was the use of having a crush on him?

I neatly ripped out a piece of paper and held a pen in my hand, ready to jot down anything that came to mind. I wanted to make these letters really good 'cause if they weren't, then there wouldn't be much fun in playing with Austin's feelings at all. Why did I agree to this plan? It almost seemed mean. Wow, Trish's personality was really starting to rub off on me. I guess that's what happened when I was always around her for most of the time. So, what was I supposed to write? It would be terrible if Austin realized that Trish and I were sort of playing a joke on him. I'm not sure how he would react. I had to make sure that I made the letters sound real but not too obvious that they were from me. Hmm, it actually seemed pretty sad that I was writing a message to myself like some complete loser with no friends whatsoever, but I knew in my mind that it wasn't the case with me, right?

I started to grin while my hand rushed across pages and pages of little love notes to, well, myself. I ended up tearing some sheets of paper into halves and quarters to get many more messages written out. When I was done, I had one thick stack of little papers covered in ink from start to finish. I realized that much of the stuff I wrote about was based on what I thought about Austin. I tried not to sound too creepy and/or stalker-ish like some of Austin's fans were though. I've looked through his pile of fan mail before, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not gonna do that again.

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**AN: Thanks for reading! :) This was only about half the chapter, but then I decided to post what I had so far since it'd been such a long time. Dez's plan is sort of being complicated to write, but it will begin in the next chapter. Please review with your thoughts!**

**- Cynthia**


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